Naruto Shippuden AU - Love of Fire
by Waterstar230
Summary: What if Naruto wasn't all alone from the start? What if there was someone with him during those hard times? What if he couldn't remember her or the things she did for him? This is a story of Sarah, an ninja with the skills of every animal in the animal kingdom, whose returned to the Hidden Leaf Village in hope to rekindle her friendship with Naruto.
1. Author's Note

This is a long-time development of a self-character I developed when I first got into Naruto and then went into Naruto Shippuden. Mind me that I don't know EVERYTHING that happened in the series of Naruto Shippuden and my memory is a little hazy when it comes to the original Naruto series.

I know I still have a ton of stories to write so bear with me please.

Thank you.


	2. Spoiler Alert

**Just to get it out there, anyone wanna tell me if they're okay with this version of the story, please comment. Also, if people don't want the spoilers, please don't look then.**

The story begins with Sarah coming into the village searching for Naruto. When she finds him, she notices a failure of recognition in his eyes and thinks it's a joke until Naruto tells her he had never seen her before in his life.

Sarah goes to Lady Tsunade to find that a man named Lord Danzo erased ever trace of her being since she left the Hidden Leaf Village. When she asks why he would do that, Lord Danzo enters and tells her it was because she was a threat to the Hidden Leaf Village and a rogue ninja since she left the village. Sarah recalls that she couldn't be a rogue since she asked permission to leave for training and asks how she is a threat. Danzo replies "it's because of your heritage and that you're too closely bonded with the Nine tails Jinchuriki."

Sarah gets angry at Danzo for calling her friend by that name and insists that his name is Naruto Uzumaki...then gets confused and asks what a Jinchuriki is. Tsunade explains the concept of a Jinchuriki and confesses that the Akatsuki are after Naruto for the Nine tailed fox.

Sarah then asks Tsunade to become Naruto's guard or at least be close enough to him that she can protect him from the Akatsuki. At this, Tsunade scolds her for being over protective and extreme, saying that Naruto needs space as much as anybody. Sarah says that she knows, but doesn't quite understand what Tsunade is trying to say.

After the confrontation with Danzo and Tsunade about the situation, Sarah runs into Sakura and asks her for advice. Sakura doesn't exactly know who Sarah is, but gladly helps her. Sakura tells Sarah that she should try to make Naruto remember her, to spend time with him as much as possible until he remembers who she is, or was, in his life. Sarah takes that advice to heart and tries to spend time with Naruto.

Sarah tries to introduce herself to Naruto, when Temari spots her and gets a flash of recognition. Temari remembers when Sarah was with Naruto when he was confronting Gaara on the day of the Chunin exams and asks her what she was doing in the village. Sarah quietly explains the situation to Temari in hopes to not get on Naruto's bad side, making him think she was crazy. Temari understands the situation and promises not to say a word to Naruto or the others, except to Gaara and Kankuro in the sand village.

After Temari leaves, Sarah stops by the library to research the jutsu Danzo used on her friends. The jutsu erases the presence of a person in one's life and can sometimes cause mental problems within the host of the jutsu. Sarah confronts Danzo on this and asks him if he has hurt Naruto with his jutsu. Danzo replies that it was difficult and took several days to get Naruto to forget her and often times he was confused as to somehow surpassing the jutsu and getting close to remembering her. When Sarah hears this, she becomes furious and tries to attack Danzo, only to be stopped by ANBU guards. Sarah vows that she'll break the jutsu so that everyone will remember her, not just Naruto, and that she wouldn't give up until she did, knowing Naruto would do the same for her.

After several days since that second confrontation, Sarah runs into Naruto again and introduces herself. This time, Naruto recognizes her as the girl who thinks she was his best friend during the times of his hardships. Sarah apologizes for that first meet and confesses that she knew him in the days at the Ninja Academy. Naruto asked her if she was one of the people who supported Sasuke, to which Sarah is disgusted and says she wouldn't cheer for the traitor if she were paid to do it. This sparks an anger in Naruto and he protects Sasuke's reputation saying he is a shinobi of the Leaf village and, therefore, a comrade. Naruto leaves her with the 'Hmph' and Sarah is left bewildered at what just occurred.

Sarah begins to hear what has been happening with Naruto and his team and learns that he needs a new teammate to replace Sasuke. She thought for a moment he would choose her, but then remembers what occurred between the two of them and tells herself to forget it. She notices a fainted Hinata by a tree and tries to help wake her up by turning into an elephant and blowing water on her head. All of Team 8 react to the fact that there was an elephant in front of their eyes and try to capture it. Sarah panics and turns into a fly to avoid detection, not noticing Shino or his bugs as they caught the action before Sarah could fly away.

After that day, Sarah hears of Sai and Captain Yamato, the newest members of Team 7. She tries to look more into the details when she notices Lee training as usual and goes to join him. Lee tries to talk to her about the power of youth as Sarah remembers Danzo and the situation he had created for her, accidently slicing a pole in half in front of Lee. Lee is impressed if not terrified and proceeds with training with Neji and Tenten. Sarah joins them as they train with boulders flying towards them. Sarah again panics and uses all her powers to stop the boulder flying towards her, slicing it to pebble-size powder, terrifying Neji, Tenten, and Lee as they witnessed her power.

After the incident in training, Sarah decides to train alone to prevent anymore incidents, when she runs into Iruka Sensei and tries to talk to him. Unlike Naruto and the others, Iruka remembers a little of Sarah and of her being the shy transfer student from America until she met Naruto. From there, Sarah was outgoing and reckless like Naruto was. Iruka only remembers Sarah up to a point when she was going through Genin exams with Naruto.

Sarah appreciates Iruka for remembering her and leaves to find Danzo outside the door. She hears a noise and returns to find Iruka has forgotten all about her.

Sarah bumps into Naruto again to find that there are words of her being whispered around the village, proclaiming her a witch and that everyone should avoid her. Naruto wanted to test to see if the words were true and challenges her to a fight. People gather and cheer for Naruto to finish Sarah off. Sarah recalls when they used to cheer for Sasuke at the Academy and scorn at Naruto for just being alive. The fight starts and Sarah loses terribly, not wanting to hurt Naruto too badly. The crowd cheers at Naruto's victory and dissipates. Naruto calls Sarah pathetic and leaves Sarah in tears.

Sarah feels like giving up and living by herself when she has a nightmare about Naruto being hurt by Danzo and goes to investigate on Naruto's whereabouts. Sarah finds Naruto with the rest of his friends from Team 7, 8, 10, and 3(Choji, Shikamaru, and Ino). Some ninja notice Sarah and call her out. Sarah tries to get them to go away, but they pester her until she turns herself into a jaguar. She tries to fight off the ninja, but they push her off into a alleyway, knocking her out.

Sarah has a dream of a young Naruto smiling at her in sweet happiness and in a loving manner, laughing and playing with a younger version of her. Her younger version looks back at her and tells her not to give up on Naruto just yet.

Sarah wakes up to find herself in a hospital bed. She finds Sakura tending to her wounds. She asks Sakura what happened, in which Sakura responds saying Naruto heard a noise and found Sarah lying unconscious on a pile of trash and brought her to the hospital and has been visiting ever since.

Naruto comes in with Shikamaru at that very moment and apologizes for calling Sarah pathetic. However, instead of taking the apology, Sarah challenges Naruto to a rematch when she gets better.

But before Sarah gets better, Naruto injures himself with the Raseshurikan technique and Sarah is sent on a recon mission to locate Sasuke and report her findings to the Hokage. While on the mission, she transforms into a variety of animals to keep a good eye on Sasuke while on her mission. She gets captured by Orochimaru and Kabuto and learns of Danzo's involvement in the experiments. Managing to escape, Sarah bumps into Sasuke himself as he makes a remark on how beautiful Sarah had become in recent years. Sarah gets her claws out and retaliates by saying Sasuke had not earned the right to call her beautiful since he left the village for Orochimaru. Sarah tries to attack Sasuke but to no avail as he is too fast for her. Sasuke tries to knock out Sarah with a Chidori when Sarah quickly uses her chakra to redirect Sasuke's Chidori at Orochimaru and Kabuto coming down the hall. Sarah realizes the situation is too dire for her and quickly seeks a way to escape by tunneling underground. Soon, she finds Orochimaru's snakes following her and she builds a side tunnel to hide. She transforms into one of the snakes and sneaks into the crowd of snakes. Sarah manages to sneak away as a snake before turning into a cheetah and running for her life. Sasuke presents one last warning to her that if she thinks she can warn Naruto of what's coming, she's deadly wrong. As he proceeds to attack her, Sasuke vanishes like mist.

Giving the Hokage as much detail as possible of what happened, Sarah confronts Danzo about using his own soldiers for guinea pigs of Orochimaru as Danzo threatens Sarah to keep her mouth shut, saying Naruto will be in the crossfire if she does not obey his orders.

Sarah has another nightmare and wakes up in a cold sweat. She trains in the middle of the night when she notices a shadow behind her. It is Kakashi sensei, out to read in one of his favorite spots. She tells Kakashi of her situation, not knowing if he remembers her or not. Kakashi tells her not to worry so much about it and if it was meant to be, the universe will tell her. Not knowing what he meant by that, she asks him. Kakashi tells about how Sarah might be in love with Naruto. Sarah retorts the comment on how she isn't in love but is concerned with Naruto's safety, when Kakashi asks why. Sarah is silenced by the words and confesses that Naruto is her best friend and that she knows what's good for him. Kakashi tells her that she sounds like Danzo, and Sarah retorts on that saying she is nothing like Danzo. Kakashi tells her more of Danzo and asks Sarah if that sounds familiar to her. It does and she is once again silenced. As she leaves, she bumps into Naruto again. Naruto tells her how bad he feels about going against her like he did and offers to take her out on a date. Sarah tries to make an excuse, but utterly accepts.

On the date, Naruto takes Sarah to Ichiraku Ramen. On the way, they spot Sai and Ino on a date of their own. Ino teases the couple as they proceed on their date, saying Naruto has found a new love other than Sakura. As the couple eat, Naruto tells Sarah of how she reminded him of someone he felt he knew once a long time ago. Sarah hopes that it is somehow a sign that she is breaking the jutsu, but doesn't let her get her hopes up. As the time passes, Sarah realizes that she is bonding with Naruto like she used to when they were younger...and she didn't care if Danzo or anyone else was watching (not that anyone was).

Sarah and Naruto continue to spend time together and people start to say that they are an official couple.

When Juraiya dies, Sarah finally gets what Tsunade tried to tell her and gives Naruto his space. Danzo confronts her and warns her that she is getting to close to Naruto. She states that she doesn't care, and tries to leave. Danzo threatens to end Naruto's life if she continued to date him. Sarah pauses and threatens to tell Tsunade of Danzo's actions if Naruto is so much as scratched. She leaves telling him that she won't give up until the jutsu is broken and he can remember her again.

When Sarah goes to check up on Naruto, he isn't home. Worried, Sarah goes to Tsunade for help. Tsunade assures that Naruto is alright and is only training. Sarah tells Tsunade of the confrontation the other night. Tsunade warns Sarah to not tempt Danzo as he is very dangerous and shady. Sarah takes the advice to heart and promises not to do anything stupid. Sarah walks by the street when she notices Shikamaru and Choji and she greets them. Shikamaru and Choji greet her back and tell her of how Naruto is trying to avenge Juraiya. Sarah takes note that Naruto wouldn't do such a thing, but understands the circumstances of why. Shikamaru argues and says that was the action he decided to take. Sarah thinks that Naruto will find a way to settle things peacefully, not purposely kill anyone out of revenge.

On the day of the Pein attack, Sarah tries her best to save the villagers, but almost fails to save them all. She notices the village is in terrible danger and tries to stop it by turning into hawk and stopping Pein from crushing the village from above. She fails and witnesses first-hand the destruction of the Leaf Village. She is then knocked out of the sky by Pein in an almost fatal attack on her life. Sarah barely survives and tries to fight the Peins. She hears Sakura scream out Naruto's name and Naruto suddenly appears. Sarah witnesses the incredible battle up to the point where Naruto was pinned down. Sarah was tempted to run in there when she sees Hinata beat her to the punch. As Hinata confesses her feelings, Sarah feels like her heart just broke and starts to cry slightly, thinking that she's stealing Naruto from his one true love, Hinata. When she notices Hinata losing the battle, Sarah decides to act. She runs into the fray with the horns of a bull and pins Pein to the wall. She yells for somebody to get Hinata and help set Naruto free. Sarah doesn't notice as Pein stabs her repeatedly over the head when she feels lifted up and tossed like a rag doll to the side. Sarah quickly gets up and turns into a T-Rex to grab Pein with her jaws. Sarah continues to fight off Pein when she is knocked down rather painfully and notices as Pein defeats Sakura, Hinata, Shikamaru, and Ino. Naruto becomes the six-tailed version of the nine-tailed fox out of sheer anger and runs after Pein.

Panicked, Sarah tries to get to Naruto in order to calm him down. Two ANBU guards stop her and she tries to reason with them, saying she's the only one who can talk some sense into Naruto. Sarah is sent back to the others and she tries to wake them up, but to no avail except for Sakura. Sakura wakes up Ino and together they heal themselves, Shikamaru, and Hinata. Sarah quickly thinks of turning into a hedgehog and digging to Naruto when Sakura argues that she should stay with them in case Naruto is defeated and Pein returns. Sarah argues that if Naruto is defeated than Naruto will be captured and brought to the Akatsuki, and Sarah wasn't about to let that happen. Sarah goes with her plan and transforms into a hedgehog. She quickly digs a tunnel past the ANBU guards and transforms into a cheetah. Sarah follows the signs of battle till she gets to see a planet-sized boulder flying in the sky and she sees that Naruto is changed back into his regular form. Relieved, Sarah witnesses the defeat of Pein.

Sarah tries to follow Naruto to Pein's true hideout when Kohan spots her outside the entrance and poses Sarah and Naruto as threats, when Sarah quickly excuses herself before Nagato and Kohan, saying she only followed Naruto to see no harm came to him. She quickly said that no one sent her after Naruto, that she came by of her own free will. Nagato says that he would feel better if Sarah would stay outside while he talked to Naruto. Naruto gives her a nod, and Sarah waits outside.

Soon, Danzo and the ANBU appear on the scene. Sarah tells them to back away, saying Naruto is handling it right now. Danzo reveals his right eye and Sarah falls into a genjutsu. Sarah tries to escape by release, but it proves ineffective. She calls out to Naruto, but still nothing happens. She is stuck in the genjutsu.

Hours later, Sarah wakes up in a cage covered in hey; an animal cage. Sarah notices that she is still a cheetah and demands to know what's going on. Danzo appears and tells her that she is now a dangerous criminal and that Naruto has gone missing. Sarah states that it can't be true, knowing if Naruto could defeat Pein, he could surely defeat Danzo and the ANBU. Danzo presents one of Lady Tsunade's slugs, injured, that Sarah sensed it was with Naruto. The slug tells her that after Nagato's defeat, Naruto was captured by the ANBU and taken to a remote facility just outside the village. The slug also tells Danzo that the village is furious. Danzo states that he doesn't care and that it's what is best for the village. Sarah retorts that it's better for Danzo, not the village. Danzo attacks Sarah from within the cage and Sarah is shown in pain. Sarah tells Danzo that he won't get away with what he's done. Danzo leaves, saying that what's done is done.

Sarah tries to escape the cage with an injured hand when she finds out the hard way that the cage is electrified. Sarah tries to dig her way out, but sees that there is a bottom to the animal cage. Sarah asks the slug where they are, in which she tells her that they are outside the border, making Sarah a rogue ninja. Sarah states that she doesn't care, saying she'll rescue Naruto no matter what.

Captain Yamato and Kakashi show up and tease Sarah about being in love with Naruto. Sarah says that she doesn't care if whether love or foolishness, all she cares is saving Naruto from Danzo. Kakashi and Captain Yamato help Sarah escape and they head to the village.

On the way to the village, they find little resistance and Yamato senses that something isn't right. Sarah states that she doesn't care and proceeds towards the village and the facility.

At the facility, Sarah spots Naruto in a cage deep underground and tries to rescue him. Sarah fails to notice that the Naruto in the cage was a fake and that Danzo sneaked up behind her with a shocker, which he stings her with repeatedly. Kakashi shows up saying Danzo was being completely dishonorable in shocking Sarah from behind. Danzo backs Sarah into the cage with the fake Naruto. Sarah demands where Naruto is, to which Danzo states he is dead. Sarah refuses to believe that, but Danzo insists it to be true. Sarah starts to cry, not wanting to believe that it was true. Just then, a voice calls her to get up.

Sarah wakes up feeling dazed and weak, and finds herself in a different cage. Sarah realizes that it was all a genjutsu and that Naruto must be safe and sound. She asks a bird what has happened and the bird states that men in masks brought her to a building while she was unconscious and placed her in the cage she is in. When Sarah asks where they are, the bird states that they are in the mountains. Which mountains? Sarah asks before the bird flies away without giving her an answer. Sarah doesn't know where she is or how long she's been there. She escapes easily and asks for directions from the forest animals as to where she might find the Hidden Leaf Village. A bear tells her on the way that the village is being rebuilt and the villagers are stationed somewhere else in the forest. As Sarah heads for Root, she notices that all she thinks about is Naruto and the possibility that she might be in love with him. She pushes that idea aside and continues onto Root.

When she gets there, she notices a lot of ANBU guards before she recognizes Naruto and goes to him. She realizes too late that it was a trap when she gets ambushed. Naruto reveals that Danzo told him that Sarah was a spy sent by the Akatsuki and that she purposely arranged the destruction of the Hidden Leaf. Sarah immediately tells Naruto that Danzo lied and that he's only using him to get to her. Danzo appears and says that the only way to deal with her would be to erase all her memories and her being. Danzo volunteers to do it. Sarah begs Naruto to help her, but he refuses, saying it might be better this way. Sarah tries to tell him of the jutsu placed on him and the others and that, in reality, she was Naruto's only childhood friend from before he became a ninja. Naruto tells her that she's crazy and that it wasn't possible. As Danzo walks towards Sarah, she begs for Naruto, pleads with him, cries to the one she knew who could save her. As Danzo places his fingers on Sarah's forehead, she calls out Naruto's first name and waits for her memories to be taken, only to hear Naruto stopping Danzo from hurting her. Naruto tries to punch him, but Danzo dodges and demands Naruto to explain himself. Naruto states that he wasn't about to let him hurt his best friend, hinting that he might remember. Naruto says that he remembers only a hint of her, but that it was enough to convince him she was telling the truth. Naruto demands that Danzo let Sarah go, but Danzo refuses. Soon, the others join with Naruto as Kakashi, Guy, and Captain Yamato free Sarah from the ANBU guards. Sarah joins Naruto and tells Danzo he lost and the jutsu is broken. Danzo leaves without saying a word.

Sarah hugs Naruto tightly in relief that he remembers her. Naruto says that he's sorry for all she's been through and all he's done to her, feeling remorse for treating her badly and not remembering all the good times they've had together. Sarah says that he doesn't care and that she loves him. Naruto is confused, but accepts the words. Sarah falls deep into her emotion of relief and kisses Naruto, then remembers where she is and apologizes for the kiss in front of Hinata. Naruto takes Sarah's face and kisses her back, triggering a chain reaction in which everyone finally remembers who Sarah is.

The story ends with Sarah and Naruto a married couple with one child named Abigail Uzumaki and another on the way.


End file.
